This book, comprised of seven chapters, focuses on the problem of planning a curriculum that recognizes and promotes growth of each pupil in the areas of mental health and learning. Chapter one, "Mutuality of Effective Functioning and School Experiences," emphasizes acceptance of pupils' thoughts and feelings and the pupils' challenging of the generalizations and the concepts that are inherent in the structure of knowledge in the curriculum. Chapter two, "The Achievement of Competency," discusses mental health from the viewpoint of the qualities that one needs in order to function competently. The importance of these qualities--work, play, and love--and their effect on learning is developed. Chapter three, "New Conceptions of Children's Learning and Development," is a reexamination and a comparison of research evidence regarding the development, learning, and motivation of human beings. Chapter four, "A Cognitive Field Theory of Learning," emphasizes inadequacy of some ideas about learning and reinforcement theories of learning as guides to teachers' action in the classroom. Chapters five, "Self-Actualization; A New Focus for Education," and six, "Learning and Becoming--New Meanings to Teachers," describe ways some teachers put into effect points discussed in previous chapters. Chapter seven, "The School and the Ego as Information Processors," discusses the concept of information, the common denominator of all the other chapters. (Author/PD)